The Skids

On offer a1970’s Gibson Marauder in good condition. The Marauder was launched in 1974 and remained in production until 1979; being replaced by the Gibson Sonex series around 1980. This Gibson type guitar was initially produced at the Kalamazoo plant, but gradually production was transferred to the newer Nashville plant. The Marauder, along with the Gibson Grabber Bass were Gibson’s mid-seventies budget guitar models; still a Gibson, and not cheap, but certainly not their lowest price electric; though there was a more up-market version, the Marauder Custom,

The guitar sports a body shape rather like a Les Paul, but has a bolt-on neck. The body and neck are made from poplar wood and hard maple and the instrument is finished in clear satin lacquer, allowing to see the underlying wood grain. There are three distinct tone settings on the Marauder’s selector switch. The pick ups are a classic Bill Lawrence design with the front pickup is similar to the Super Humbucker with small additional magnets reinforcing and directing the field, while the bridge pickup has a single, iron-cored coil, with a magnet below and iron strips from the lower magnet pole. The fast, easy-action neck is made from Canadian maple. The fingerboard is made from rosewood with dot inlays and the distinctive peghead headstock is of “Flying V-series” design. Price £1399

In addition to the work between Ghost Pick ups and Elite Vintage Guitars, we are also kitting out the Skids for their upcoming 40year anniversary tour and work on their new album to commemorate this. AS the guitar tunings are vastly different from the “big Country” sound a multiple set of guitars is required reflecting the variety in tuning. No problem as Wilf Vissenga and I are keen to get these boys off to a flying start.

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August/September 2016 kicked off with a collaboration between Elite Vintage Guitars (Jay) and Ghost Guitar Pickups (Wilf). Following a crazy idea to implant “Superhot” Ghost Pickups in High Quality (Elite) Vintage guitars to even further improve the sound, as these guitars already have the looks, mojo and playability.

With “Big Country” and “Skids” lined up as first “Test Guinea Pigs” it became quickly clear that this “Old vintage Geetar ” modded with bespoke “Ghost Pups” (Yamaha SF-700, 1977) was a bit of a sensation ,and ate all the other guitars including the “Big Country gear”, so was this a “bespoke fluke”?

So a 2nd test “Geetar” (Yamaha SF-500, 1977) was kitted out; it was important to have another 24-fret, 2-octave model like the SF-700). The initial test-drive of these, prompted the esteemed Bruce Watson of “Big Country” to issue the words “Now I have to put my old guitar in the bin”….!! Not my words…

So here a few months later, following the debut of the “Geet” at Cavern Club and 2 more gigs in London we have a few more snaps from the “Herne Bay” gig…now with 2 “Geets”

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Well, that’s the final selection to completion of the guitar “sound” of “Big Country” and “Skids” done, finally 6 carefully selected hi-qual Japanese Elite Vintage Guitars (see www.elitevintageguitars.com for details), Yamaha Superflighter SF-500 (1977), SF-700 (1978); Yamaha Supercombinator SC-800 (1979), SC-1200, and some early pre-Carlos Santana Yamaha SG-50/70 (1973) have been selected to deliver the current and future sound of these 2 iconic bands. All guitars look and sound great, however sound even better with Wilf Vissenga‘s superhot Ghost Pickups, tailored to each individual Guitar / Play style for an even better sound.
This Vintage Guitar/Ghost pickup combination is the brainchild of Elite Vintage Guitars and Ghost Guitar pickups UK Ltd (www.ghostguitarpickups.com), for more details follow link to each of the websites, or call or email us.
Below see some pics of Bruce Watson and Jamie Watson playing on stage and test driving some of these iconic and often rare axes….. Cheers J